Toowoomba LifeFlight's record $6.1 million year

Tara Miko
Reporter
Tara started with APN in 2010 after graduating with a journalism and politics degree from Griffith University in Brisbane. After two-and-a-half years working on APN papers in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, she joined the team at The Chronicle in February 2013. In September that year she took over the reins of the Rural Weekly.

The staggering cost to keep the helicopters flying was due in part to the long distances travelled in the south-west region which stretches from Toowoomba to Goondiwindi and the NSW border, and north into the South Burnett.

Airlifts from traffic and motorbike crashes, as well as quad bike and equestrian injuries were the most common missions with 69 in the past year.

Cardiac conditions made up 59 airlifts followed by 34 stroke or neurological conditions, 30 abdominal conditions, and 23 falls including from animals, bushwalking and climbing, elderly or medical incidents, rounded out the top five patient injury or illnesses.

"The jobs to rural properties stand out because you always come home with a weird story of how things happen," Mr Steen said.

"We also have a lot of missions to motorbike accidents, especially during the summer months and weekends.

"(On a) Saturday afternoon, there's a good chance we will go to a motocross park to pick someone up."

October and November, as well as the January to May period, were the busiest for the Toowoomba base, he said.